The Universe in the Word: On Bhartrhari's Employment of Universals

About the Book:

Bhartrhari, the 5th century grammarian-philosopher, is undoubtedly one of the most uniquely brilliant figures in Indian intellectual history. The supreme place Bhartrhari gave to language in cognition and the cosmos is well known and there has been an encouraging resurgence in studies based on his great work the Vakyapadiya (VP), and to a lesser extent his Mahabhasya-Dipika (MBhD). This book focuses on his employment of the conceptual model of “jati”, the universal, in his philosophy of language, epistemology, and ontology. While it includes an informal translation of the Jati-samuddesa, a sub-chapter of the VP, this book is based on the occurrence of “jati” and allied terms throughout Bhartrhari’s VP and MBhD. Hopefully this will be of use to people interested in Bhartrhari’s thought and the history of Indian epistemology more generally.

About the Author:

VERONICA M.T. BENJAMIN, writer and independent scholar, was born and raised in California to an American mother and Trinidadian-British father. Philosophically inclined since adolescence, she pursued her bachelor’s degree in the subject at University College Utrecht where she decided to shift her focus from Western philosophy to Sanskrit and Indian philosophy. In 2011, she moved to Varanasi for an MA in Indian philosophy and religion at Banaras Hindu University, where she would stay on to complete her PhD in 2019. She currently resides in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh with her husband, spending her time writing, wandering mountains, learning the Gaddi language, and refining her understanding of the good life.